While we were on vacation, my parents kept the boys for several days while M and I got some time away to ourselves. It was a great bonding time for M and me, and a good way for my parents to get special time with their grandsons. One of the ways they had to compromise from some of our parenting habits, though, was watching some different children’s shows than we usually play at home. There are very few shows I can stand to watch, so we DVR those shows and always have several to choose from when it’s TV time. My parents had recorded a few, but more of the time, my mom would just turn on Noggin and let them watch whatever was on.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with anything Noggin plays, other than being insanely annoying sometimes. I recognize it’s merely a matter of personal preference, so I’ve made it a point not to cringe when PJ asks for Dora or Diego or Gabba Gabba now. If there’s an episode on, I’ll let him watch and find something else to do so that I can ignore the TV. (On the bright side, I don’t know when I’ve kept the house cleaner.)

In the meantime, though, I have learned that the more ridiculous the show is, the more hypnotic it is for young children. Oh, and some of those shows are totally trippy. Yo Gabba Gabba? There are not words to describe this show. I love it for the way it holds my boys’ attention–but that’s about the only reason I do. It is WEIRD.

The shows I’ve found I can stand in moderation are Blue’s Clues (with Steve), WonderPets, Backyardigans, and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. I still detest Dora, Diego, and Yo Gabba Gabba. All the rest fall somewhere in between. I’m curious. What kids’ shows do you like to watch with your kids, and which ones do you hate but let them watch anyway? And while we’re polling, what do you see is a reasonable amount of TV time for your kids each day? How strictly do you stick to that guideline?

Well, this feels weird. I had no idea when I wrote that last post that it would be the left up there for four months. I guess I was just burned out. I’ve written next to nothing on the family blog either, but I couldn’t abandon it like I did this one, thanks to the good-intentioned nagging I kept getting.

Not much has happened in the last four months, but I guess I’ll highlight the big stuff.

–Scooter no longer lives up to his name; he walks everywhere.

–We bought new living room furniture–yesterday, in fact. We also sold our old stuff on craigslist yesterday, so we are without living room furniture until they deliver our new stuff on Thursday. Nothing like camping out in your own living room.

–My baby sister is finally pregnant with her first baby, and they just moved to Connecticut for a year for her husband to have an internship at Yale. They decided to wait five years after getting married before trying for kids, and she got the positive pregnancy test about three weeks after their fifth anniversary. How’s that for timing?

–My little brother’s second baby girl was born on July 4th. It really wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be to get the news she was born. I guess with them being all the way across the country from us, I just feel kind of detached from them right now.

–We just got back from a week-long vacation, followed almost immediately by an impromptu visit from the in-laws. Nothing terribly exciting happened in either visit, though. I won’t bore you with all the details.

And honestly, that’s all I can think about that’s worth mentioning. I won’t promise to be a better blogger or not to disappear for months like that again–because quite frankly, I highly suspect blogging will not be a regular thing for me again any time soon. I’m in a place where I don’t want to feel like I have to blog and ramble about nothing important (or worse yet, something I will be embarrassed to read later on), but I want somewhere to turn when I feel like I need to say something. That’s the only reason I never officially closed down the blog.

So dear readers, if any of you are left, check back from time to time (or keep me in your readers), but don’t wait obsessively for me to write daily about something compelling (like I know you must have done before). And I’ve also been sucking at e-mail lately, but if you want to talk to me for whatever reason, that’s the best way to do so. I promise I will get back to you–eventually.